Subway service on the R train between the Whitehall Street station and Lower Manhattan is expected to resume on Friday. The above photo, supplied by the MTA, shows flooding damage from Hurricane Sandy.Photo courtesy of MTA

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Good news for Staten Island commuters: Service on the R train between the Whitehall Street station and Brooklyn is expected to resume on Friday for the first time since Hurricane Sandy damaged a key tunnel.

Thomas Prendergast, president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, told board members that a full assessment of the South Ferry station hasn't even been completed because the damage was so severe.

Initial estimates by the MTA put the cost of rebuilding the South Ferry station at $600 million.

But if the MTA decides the costs of repairing the station "aren't worth the investment or we could use that money elsewhere, we would make that decision along those lines," Prendergast said, according to the Journal.

The South Ferry station won't be complety eliminated and its footprint won't be removed, but some vulnerable equipment could be moved elsewhere.

"If you get a situation where you say, 'The likelihood of this flooding occurring again is really, really high,' would you really put this asset back in the same location," Prendergast said, according to the Journal report.